


solstice

by gruhukens



Series: toil and trouble [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, F/F, Multi, Polyamory, Summer Solstice, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 09:29:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4430150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gruhukens/pseuds/gruhukens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>"I can </em>levitate<em>?" he asks, as Pearl starts setting out the candles from his bag in a circle around the unlit campfire. "Can you guys do that too?"</em></p><p> <em>"We can," says Pearl, putting down the Earth candle. "We just have no good reason to, so we don't."</em></p><p> <em>"Speak for yourself," yells Amethyst, from where she's paused gathering firewood to hover a couple of feet in the air. "I </em>love doing<em> things for no good reason." </em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Steven and the Gems at midsummer, or, the absolutely unnecessary witch AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	solstice

**Author's Note:**

> okie dokie basically i don't know how much people in the us are into the solstices? but over here, especially where i live in the uk, which is somewhere between avebury and stonehenge (both prominent prehistoric sites), it's a Big Thing to be up for the sunrise on these days and it is absolutely worth it.
> 
> also just a disclaimer: i know next to nothing about witchcraft. all the practices in this story are intended to be fictional, apart from the solstice. i'm guessing everything else. if anyone wants to correct me about anything!! please do!!!!! i'm always happy to learn.
> 
> as usual, it's half twelve in the morning when i have finished this, so all (probably many) mistakes are my own, mea culpa.

Steven carries the hot chocolate.

Pearl, of course, protests vehemently when he packs it into the bag alongside the cups, quartz crystal, herbs and candles. They're all standing in the kitchen together, Amethyst sharing a bag of chips with Steven, and occasionally Garnet, after bowing out of helping. Pearl watches Steven's Cheeto-dusted hands lower the flask into the bag as if it were a live spider.

"Garnet," she says, speaking right over Amethyst's head with the air of someone who knows a lost cause when she sees one, "is that really necessary? We've always fasted on the solstice before now, or at least only eaten raw foods. Do you know what goes into that hot chocolate powder? What's wrong with some water, if we're thirsty?"

Garnet wrinkles her nose, zipping the bag with a wave of her hand.

"I know it's summer, Pearl," she says, handing the bag to Steven, "but it's three in the morning and it's cold out there, especially with the winds coming up off the sea. I think we'll all be glad for something warm."

"She's the weather witch," says Amethyst, peering into the chip packet for crumbs. "And besides, you don't  _have_ to drink it. It's for Steven."

Pearl thins her lips. Yawning widely, Steven hefts the bag onto his back, and turns towards her. She visibly melts.

"Fine," she says, turning to grab a water bottle off the counter, "just don't expect me to drink any."

"We won't," Amethyst and Garnet say simultaneously. 

Steven bounces up onto his heels, hands on the straps of his bag, as the moon slides into view through the kitchen window. For a moment, it paints the witches in front of him as something eerie in the darkness, something bigger, better and beyond who they are in the daylight. He does not recognize them in the dim light; Garnet's shadow splits in two, Amethyst's hair grows and vines around her. Even Pearl's diadem seems to glow as she turns towards him, her eyes luminous in the shadows, but then she takes his hand and she's Pearl again.

"Are we ready?" he asks her, tugging on her hand. "Are we ready, are we ready, are we ready?"

Gently, Garnet places a hand on Steven's hair, her ruby ring catching slightly against his curls.

"We're ready," she says.

 

* * *

 

It's pitch black when they leave. Amethyst mans the flashlight, which means mostly flashing it in Pearl's face until it's needed to show Steven where to step. Pearl, in her turn, spends the short walk down to the beach telling Steven pointedly about the rich historical tradition of using candles for lighting and for rituals, until Steven pulls a small tealight out of the bag and, sticking his tongue out in concentration, holds it still for Garnet to light with her hands.

Once they reach the beach, Amethyst turns off the flashlight and they all take a candle before starting the circle around and up the hill, not without a certain sense of smugness on Pearl's part. Steven, cupping the candle flame with his hand to shield it from the sea winds, feels a stirring of excitement low in his stomach and for once, even Amethyst and Pearl fall silent, walking hand in hand and holding their candles aloft as they find the well-trodden path to the cliff top. It feels strange and secret, as things in the night often do, and Amethyst parting the vines on the path with nothing but her candle make it undeniable: it is midsummer. It is night, and there will be magic before morning. 

When they reach the top, Steven drops his bag immediately to rush over to the cliff's edge and look out at the horizon. Without looking, Garnet snags his arm.

"Careful, Steven," she says, smiling, "Until we teach you how to levitate, you stay away from the cliff at night. Deal?"

Steven's eyes go wide.

"I can  _levitate_?" he asks, as Pearl starts setting out the candles from his bag in a circle around the unlit campfire. "Can you guys do that too?"

"We can," says Pearl, putting down the Earth candle. "We just have no good reason to, so we don't."

"Speak for yourself," yells Amethyst, from where she's paused gathering firewood to hover a couple of feet in the air. "I _love_ doing things for no good reason." _  
_

Pearl turns back to the candles, rolling her eyes, as Garnet releases Steven's arm.

"Want to help us set up?" she asks. "We're building a Circle, just like at home, around the campfire."

"We'll meditate while the sun comes up, cast some spells together," adds Pearl. "Sunrise and sunset are both incredibly powerful times for spellwork, even more so on the solstice. We usually cast enchantments on each other and the house, and on you, but as a witch in training, you can cast your own spells this year, if you'd like. Maybe some good luck charms for your friend?"

Steven blushes and smiles.

"Connie doesn't believe in magic, really. Or her parents don't. But she said it would be okay to cast spells about her, if I wanted to." He pauses. "I think she's really interested in what we do. Do you think I could teach her some of the things you teach me?"

"Sure," says Amethyst, coming back from the bushes with an armful of materials for the fire. "Like, not spells. You either got magic or you don't, dude. But there's a lot about witchcraft that's not magical at all: meditation, self-belief, focusing stuff like that. She can learn all that, easy: it's not just useful for witchcraft."

Pearl hands Steven a white candle, directing him where to place it.

"I think that's an excellent idea," she says as he plants it carefully in the dirt, "There's no better way to learn than to teach someone else, right, Garnet? Do you remember teaching Amethyst all of this?"

Amethyst starts squirming, hands full of leaf litter.

" _P,_ " she says, dumping her haul in the middle of the firepit, "that was  _thousands of years ago._ Do we have to do this? In front of Steven?"

Pearl's eyes gleam in the moonlight and she starts to smile.

"Oh, I remember it like it was yesterday," she says, theatrically clasping her hands in front of her. "This  _tiny witch_ \- can you believe it, Steven, she was even smaller than she was now, and so  _adorable-"_

With a quick pushing motion outwards, Amethyst ripples the earth under Pearl, who loses her footing and falls. Steven covers his mouth to stop his snort from escaping. Amethyst has no such qualms, and falls about laughing.

Pearl gets a foot up, slips, and falls back again. Amethyst's laughter dissolves into soft giggles.

"Sorry, P," she says. "I couldn't help myself. You're so  _easy."_

Gently, she makes a quick gesture upwards, and a solitary lily springs up from the earth by her feet. Maganimously, she picks it and holds it out to Pearl, who is mostly stable, but Garnet swoops in before Pearl can take it.

"Thanks, Amethyst," she says, tucking it into her shirt and turning back to the patterns she's drawing in the dirt around the stone boundaries of the firepit.

Pearl has clambered to her feet. She straightens her shirt and glares at Amethyst, but it lacks any real heat.

"If we're  _quite_ ready," she says, "I'd like to be done before the sun comes up." _  
_

Amethyst salutes mock-seriously, but when Pearl turns her back to fetch the herbs from Steven's bag, she takes a few seconds to grow and shape a daisy crown with deft movements, whispering a quick thanks to the plants she uses. It takes a second for her to direct the wind to carry it to Pearl's head, then she turns back to start building the fire. Garnet, without looking up, also sends the lily Amethyst grew to tuck itself gently into Pearl's sash, smiling as she does so.

Pearl's eyes are warm when she turns back to them, but she says nothing, only directs Steven to start grinding some herbs.

Working together in the moonlight, it takes them no time at all to set the campfire ready for the celebration. Steven dusts the last of the herbs over the firepit, then tucks his hands into his sweater sleeves and looks over the clifftop, tamping down on the excitement growing in his belly. 

"Should we start meditating?" asks Pearl. She has her hands on her hips and is also looking out towards the horizon, which has yet to start lightening.

Garnet pulls in her lips momentarily.

"...Yes," she says, after a moment. "I think that would be best. Steven, we're just going to do what we normally do at home, okay? The three of us will be using the fire as a point of focus, but if you want, you can focus on your crystal just like we've been practicing."

Garnet pecks Pearl and Amethyst lightly on the mouth before settling down on the south side the fire. Pearl touches her lips absent-mindedly as she sits at the east, Amethyst following shortly after at the north. In turn, they light the candles in front of them: earth for Amethyst, air for Pearl, water and fire for Garnet, who lets the flames dance over her fingers for a moment before settling her hands on her knees.

Self-consciously, Steven pulls his crystal out of his pack and folds to his knees on the west, completing the Circle. They all face inwards, the fire reflecting off Garnet's glasses and rings, Amethyst and Pearl half-closing their eyes as they watch the flames, Amethyst's necklace peeking out of the neck of her shirt. Perching the crystal on his knee, he holds up a stray stick from the leftover firewood; Garnet raises a hand to wave it into a tiny flame, and he lights the spirit candle in front of him before tossing it carefully back onto the fire.

The Circle connects through him, and he sees the others settle as they feel it too: their palms unfolding open on their knees, their chests relaxing, feeling the connection it brings to each other and to deep inside themselves. Steven never loves being a witch in training more than he does in quiet times like these, when he gets to feel so close to his family. Quietly, so as not to disturb the others, he mimics their positions, balancing the crystal on his upturned hand, focusing on the way it feels against his palm.

He closes his eyes, and the sound of his breathing carries him away.

 

* * *

 

"It's time," says Garnet after a while, looking out towards the horizon. Steven comes back to himself and opens his eyes to see that the sky is already blazed with pink and orange stripes, reflecting off the sea in front of them to mimic the fire they sit around.

Amethyst pulls her necklace out of her top. Pearl gently resettles her diadem in the middle of her forehead. They shift closer to Steven, facing the horizon in a semicircle around the fire.

"Join in when you're ready," Pearl tells Steven. "Don't worry about what we're doing. Just use your mother's crystal; you'll know."

As the sun scrapes over the horizon of the sea, Amethyst begins to sing. Pearl harmonizes, then Garnet, and then Steven, clutching the quartz with slippery fingers, opens his mouth and joins in. He doesn't understand what the others are singing: here and there he hears what could be a word, but it mostly sounds like vocalizations. Despite this, he finds Pearl was right about knowing what to do: the same kind of song slips out of his mouth, and even though he has no idea what he's saying, he feels the meanings of the words deep inside himself. It feels like a vocal Circle, a connection, to the sun and to the earth and to the fire they're gathered around. He can even feel the witches around him in a way he's never been able to before: Garnet's strength, Pearl's control, Amethyst's passion, and the love they have for him and for each other.

He also feels it when they turn their song onto the fire in front of them after what feels like hours, using the rising sun to build the flames higher and higher. Entranced, he watches as all kinds of things form in the flames: Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst, Connie, himself, his father, many other people he doesn't recognize. And then, finally, his mother. For a moment, as the fire reaches its peak, it solidifies into a tall and towering Rose Quartz, standing high above everyone. She shakes out her skirts, sending sparks flying, and then turns to touch each witch on the palm. All of them, even Garnet, seem awestruck. Finally, she turns to Steven.

"Mom?" says Steven, very quietly.

"Steven," Rose says, smiling widely enough to outshine the sunrise. "My beautiful Steven. Look at how you've grown."

As she leans down to pull her close to him, he closes his eyes and holds out his arms. Despite the flames, there is no heat, and Steven feels the solidity of her embrace for a second before she slides right through him with a whisper to disappear in the morning air.

When he opens his eyes, the fire has returned to normal and the sun is blinding them from well above the horizon. Next to him, tears are openly running down Pearl's face.

"Oh my  _god,_ " Amethyst yells from the other side of the fire, jumping up to plant a kiss on Garnet's cheek. "How about it, G? Did you _see_ her? Can you  _remember_ the last time a solstice felt so good? It must be Steven!"

Steven says nothing, sits back and just stares at the crystal in his hand.

"I saw her," he says, very quietly. Pearl's head snaps up, and she's at his side in two strides, sweeping him up into a hug so strong it lifts him off the ground.

Garnet and Amethyst follow close behind, enfolding them all into one tight bundle.

"I saw her," says Steven again, into Pearl's shoulder. His eyes are shining. "Did you see her? She's so beautiful, guys."

"She always was," says Amethyst, somewhere at Steven's elbow. "And you know she'd be proud of you, little man."

"Like we all are," says Garnet, from above him. "She'd love you just as much as we do, Steven."

Heart full, Steven closes his eyes and tugs them closer.

 

* * *

 

Once the sun is well above the horizon, they fall into spell-casting; healing spells for Greg's sunburn, growing enchantments for Steven and Amethyst's garden, various small good luck charms for Connie, Lars, Sadie, and the other townspeople Steven knows and loves. Together, they cast the bigger spells, one of which - as Pearl tells Steven - is an annual spell to bless the house and all its occupants.

Steven loves spellwork, and the presence of the fire and all the herbs, candles and symbols make it easier on all of them to cast, but it still takes a lot out of them, and after a while they take all peel off to sit and watch the sun and sky. Steven sits drowsily next to Garnet by the firepit, which now contains little more than embers.

Garnet is looking at her hands, the bright sun glinting off her ruby and sapphire rings. For a moment, she seems to haze, and Steven can see two smaller women, knelt with foreheads touching in the space where Garnet sits, but then she looks up and she's Garnet again.

"Your mother always loved these celebrations," she says, as Steven scooches closer. "We're creatures of the earth, the moon and the sun, but she was closer to the sun than anyone of us. Even though you came from the earth, you take after her."

"What are you close to?" asks Steven, gently poking his toes into the dirt.

"I love the sun too, and the Earth," says Garnet. "Although Amethyst is closer to the Earth than any of us except you. Pearl loves the moon. Next year we'll have an eclipse, so if you really want to see her during a celebration, wait until then."

Steven closes his eyes for a moment, wrapping his fingers more tightly around the crystal in his hand.

"I can feel the sunrise, even though it's still cold," he says. "And when we were singing, I knew what to do, even though I didn't know what you were saying. I felt connected. Is this what it feels like for you guys all the time? Is - is this what my mom felt?"

"Yep," says Amethyst, flopping down onto her front next to him. "Your mom loooved the solstices. Earth and Sun, just like Garnet. I love the equinoxes, and the sunsets. Night time is my time," she says, pausing to shoot finger guns at Pearl, who rolls her eyes.

"But solstices are good for everyone," she continues. "We get energy and life from our gems, but we use celebrations like today to power those gems for us. It gives us energy, like a celestial hamburger."

Steven's intent nodding is interrupted by his stomach rumbling. He goes bright red and places both his hands on his belly while Amethyst cackles.

"Sounds like someone needs an actual hamburger," says Garnet, snagging Steven's bag from behind them and rifling through it. "Or... some hot chocolate. That's all we have."

Amethyst pulls a face.

"It's been hours since we left. It'll be cold by now."

The witches all turn to look at Steven's loud intake of breath. Starry-eyed, and momentarily energized, he holds up his crystal.

"Can I?" he says, turning to Garnet and bouncing a little. "Can I, can I, can I?"

"Go for it," says Garnet.

"Yeah, try it, little man," says Amethyst.

Steven takes the flask, sticking the crystal in between his teeth to free up his hands. Pearl visibly winces, but Steven doesn't notice as he curls his hands around the flask and concentrates like Pearl has been teaching him, pulling energy from his crystal and directing it out through his hands.

"Guys," he says after a few moments, "hey, guys! I think I've done it."

"Nice one," says Amethyst, pulling the mugs out of the bag.

"Steven, well done!" says Pearl, clapping.

Steven, hands cupped around the steaming flask, nods tiredly. Pearl takes it from him with a ruffle of his hair.

While they all drink, Pearl turning her nose up at the chocolate and drinking from her water bottle, Amethyst examines Steven with a critical eye.

"I don't know, guys," she says. "Maybe the hot chocolate was a bad idea. Rip Van Winkle here looks ready to nap."

Steven opens his mouth to protest, but it turns into a long, drawn-out yawn. Pearl looks questioningly at Garnet.

"Do we have much more to do here?" she asks.

Garnet sets down her cup and snaps her fingers. The candles around the fire extinguish instantly, but the fire still gently smolders.

"Not any more," she says, packing their empty cups into Steven's bag and slinging it over her shoulder.

"Nap time!" declares Amethyst, lifting Steven up into the air. He holds his drink aloft, laughing, but that also turns into a yawn. "We're all witched out!"

"Definitely nap time," says Pearl, getting to her feet. "We'll come back later for everything else."

Amethyst sets Steven gently on his feet and steers him towards the path.

"Let's go, go, go," she says, but at the last second, he turns under her hands to stumble over and kneel gently beside the fire. The witches approach as he puts his hands on the stones that ring the fire, feeling the residual warmth leech into his fingertips. He thinks he can't remember being so tired, or so happy.

"Love you, Mom," he says tiredly, and then lets Pearl take him by the hand and lead him away.

 

* * *

 

When they get back, it doesn't take long for them all to gravitate to the lounge area, where Garnet has pushed the sofa aside and lain down a spare mattress to make a soft napping space for Steven. He knows that Pearl, who doesn't sleep a lot, sometimes likes to sit beside him during the night, so it's no surprise when she curls up at the foot of his impromptu bed, but when Amethyst bounces gently onto the covers next to him, that's new. Garnet climbs onto the blanket next to him a minute later and drops a kiss onto his forehead. Half-asleep, Steven smiles.

Amethyst is holding one of his hands, and Garnet's fingers are tangled in his hair, and Pearl is a solid presence down by his feet, and he knows that if he opens his eyes, he can see the portrait of his mother that hangs above the door, smiling down at him. In the moment, he feels like he's in a Circle of his own: surrounded by the people he loves, enveloped in their care and affection, radiating his own; seeing the future and the past stretch out around him, connected to the present with security and peace and family. He snuggles further down into the blankets, feeling the others shift around him.

"Love you," Amethyst calls out softly into the afternoon light.

Garnet hums.

"You too," says Pearl tiredly.

Steven opens his eyes and looks at the witches around him, and then up at his mother, beautiful and bright above him, golden in the light streaming through the windows and doors. He feels the crystal he's still holding, its surfaces smooth and warm under his fingers, and thinks: this is the best kind of witchcraft. He closes his eyes again.

"Happy solstice," he says, and sleeps.

**Author's Note:**

> small bits and pieces: a) amethyst is a nature witch!!! garnet is (unimaginatively) in control of the weather (heat and ice), and the future. pearl's more of a jack of all trades: VERY theoretically advanced in spellwork, great w/ illusions tho b) also, they all have jewellery corresponding to their gems, if i didn't make that clear enough. c) someone help greg's sunburn. help him
> 
> thanks for reading ♥


End file.
